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I'm just an 8-bit dude making his way through a 256-bit world. Thanks for stopping by my little piece of internet space. If you get the chance, take a look at my blog which is packed full of industry commentary.

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One of the most disturbing trends in the video game industry is the ballooning budgets of games. We live in a time when the big AAA titles have budgets that match and sometimes surpass summer blockbuster films. To put this in perspective, take a look at the top ten most expensive games ever made (as of early 2010).

Keep in mind that this list does not include marketing or distributing costs, which add exponentially to the cost of the game. For example, Halo 3 may have cost $55 million to develop, but Microsoft spent about $200 million on the marketing budget, bringing the total cost closer to $300 million. Furthermore, this doesn’t include game budgets that haven’t been disclosed to the public. Heck, Final Fantasy XIII is said to have cost 50% more than its predecessor, but isn’t on this list because those number aren’t official.

Yeah, I don't know what they did with that $60 million either

Compare this to the $200,000 budget for Doom back in 1993, which was considered abnormally high for the time. Some people would point to inflation as the main culprit behind rising costs, but the percentage of inflation from 1993 to today is only 54.43 percent. That means that Doom’s 200K budget would only increase to $308,860.00 today. Can you even imagine a game being made for that kind of money today?

200K just doesn't buy what it used to...

The truth is that technology has brought us to the place we are today. Doom was a simplistic game and could easily be recreated today for far less than its original budget. But we demand far more from our games today than the experience that the original Doom offers. These far more complex experiences require larger teams, more computers, larger work space and more money devoted to preproduction costs.

Take a close look at the list again. What do all of these games have in common? They are all either original titles or are first entries to a series on a new platform. New game engines, character models and art designed had to be developed for these titles – something that sequels on the same platform wouldn’t have to worry about – which adds to the bottom line. That’s why Halo 3 is on this list but Halo Reach isn’t. Reach used the same engine that its predecessor did and thus cost far less to develop. This is one of the many reasons that developers and publishers enjoy pushing out sequels – they cost far less to produce than a brand new AAA title.

Not as expensive as Halo 3

Every new generation of consoles and computers brings new complexities to the table. There is so much more that can be accomplished, but these accomplishments all equate to dollars and cents when it comes to development. Developing for the PS2 cost more than it did on the PSOne and the PS3 cost more still. Given this logic, it only stands to reason that games will only continue to become more and more expensive as technology moves forward. Of course, this is a model that cannot sustain itself over time. Eventually the AAA model of game development will collapse in upon itself which is bad for both developers and consumers alike.

The question then turns to how costs can be cut without sacrificing game longevity or quality. Here are three solutions that I would offer towards that goal. Feel free to make your own in the comments section.

Making better tools

In a lot of ways, this is happening already with developers using already developed tool sets such as the Unreal Engine. A lot of times a studio makes the decision to unnecessarily develop a brand new game engine for their game. They would rather work with in house technology than pay a third party licensing fees for use of a tried and true engine.

Why try and reinvent the wheel?

While in theory this could save money, it often times doesn’t. Development of an engine is an expensive task that requires planning, programming, debugging and optimization. And in the end they often times end up with an inferior product in comparison. Batman: Arkham Asylum would likely not have turned out as well if the folks at Rocksteady Studios decided to develop their own engine than using Epic’s Unreal Engine – an engine that they were quite familiar with. The results speak for themselves and the cost was ultimately reduced.

Cutting frivolous costs

John Goodman’s in Rage. Yup. Now, I love John Goodman, don’t get me wrong, but I wonder how much he was paid to put his voice to a character in Id’s upcoming post apocalyptic adventure. I hope it wasn’t much because adding the expense of Hollywood voice talent to a video game is a completely unnecessary cost.

While it is important to have solid voice acting in game, the talent should come relatively cheap. Famous actors cost money and their voices don’t do anything to enhance the gaming experience or sell the game. If anything it detracts from the experience. When Patrick Stuart’s soothing voice ushers forth from my speakers during Castlevania: Lords of Shadow I can’t help but think of it as Patrick Stuart, even though it’s not supposed to be him. Recognizable voices are bad for games because it’s hard to separate the actor from the character. So paying extra for this voice talent is akin to burning money.

Speaking of Hollywood, there is also no need to bring in professional screen writers for writing video games. Not only does this drive costs up (as opposed to hiring less famous writers) but it also detracts from the quality. Writing a script for a video game is not the same as writing a movie. It’s about time the industry realized this.

Less photo realism

Photo realistic games are expensive. Period. The level of detail that is necessary to achieve this affect is insane and the associated costs are likewise just as crazy. Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be striving as an industry to create games with better graphics. What I’m saying is that we can achieve aesthetically wonderful game experiences through intelligent use of graphics. Games like Catherine and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet are graphically impressive games that don’t require the processing power and resulting programming team behind it of a game like Crysis 2.

Just try and tell me this doesn't look great

To reiterate, I’m not saying that we need to get rid of photorealistic games, but we need to move away from the current notion in the industry that games need to have such a high level of graphical fidelity to be successful.

What do you guys think? Are ballooning budgets a cause for concern? Let your thoughts be known by sounding off in the comments below!

It’s another swelteringly hot Friday down here in sunny Florida, and you know what that means. It’s time for another fun filled installment of Missing in Action!

For all of those neophytes new to my corner of the blogosphere, let me explain how MIA works. MIA is a weekly column where I pick out a game or franchise of old, dust it off and present it for a possible current generation entry.

To qualify for the MIA treatment the game or franchise cannot have appeared on any of the current generation consoles, nor can a new title be currently in development, though unconfirmed rumors, speculation and hearsay are certainly permissible. Also the title or franchise must be well served by a current generation entry. E.T. for Atari is not likely to grace these electronic pages.

This week I present for your consideration, by popular demand, Balloon Fight!

Before I begin there is something I want to address. Some of you may debate on Balloon Fight’s eligibility for MIA based on the 2007 release of Tingle’s Balloon Fight for the Nintendo DS. My counterargument is two-fold:

1) The DS is no longer ‘current generation’ as the 3DS is the successor system – this holds true even though the DS is still seeing development.

2) Tingle’s Balloon Fight never made it to the states and was a Nintendo Club exclusive at that. As such the vast majority of my audience has been unable to play it.

Now that that’s settled, on with the show!

Balloon Fight began its life in the year 1984 as an arcade game in the Nintendo Vs. series. For those of you unaware, the Nintendo Vs. series was a run of arcade games designed for two player competitive play and included games such as Donkey Kong, Castlevania, Popeye, Mario Bros. and even saw the appearance of previous MIA subject Ice Climber.

In terms of gameplay, Balloon Fight is actually rather simple. You take control of a little man with two balloons tied to him. You can get your little Balloon Fighter to flap his arms and ascend into the air by pressing the A or B buttons. The object is to clear the board of enemies by popping their balloons, which sends them hurtling towards the ground or into a body of water to be eaten by a large fish.

Flap those arms little balloon man!

Seems easy enough, but remember that these enemies won’t sit back and wait for you to pop their balloons. They will in turn attempt to pop your balloons and send you to a similar fate. If the enemy succeeds in popping one of your balloons, flying will become much more difficult and you won’t be able to ascend as quickly. Losing a second balloon will ultimately send you to your doom, however this isn’t the only way to lose a life – you can also be struck by lightning, eaten by the aforementioned large fish or just plain fall into the water as well.

In the arcade game there was only one mode of play where you and an optional pal would simply clear the board of enemies in attempts to reach a high score. When the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 an additional mode was added in the form of Balloon Trip.

Sure it looks pleasent, but there's a man eating fish in those waters

Balloon Trip allowed a single player to take a side scrolling journey via their balloons. The goal was to collect as many balloons as possible while avoiding random lightning strikes. The player is given a single life to do this with the goal being a high score.

As an interesting side not, Nintendo later released a Game & Watch version of Balloon Fight that was essentially a portable version of the NES Balloon Trip mode.

Those Game & Watch handhelds sure looked spiffy

In 1990 Nintendo released a sequel to Balloon Fight called Balloon Kid for the Game Boy. Balloon Kid is a further expansion of the Balloon Trip mode developed for the NES and Game & Watch versions of Balloon Fight. The player takes control of a little girl named Alice as she tries to find her brother Jim, who had been blown away by a sudden gust of wind. Luckily, Jim had apparently read Hansel and Gretel and left a trail of balloons so that Alice could follow and save him.

When in control of Alice the game plays much like Balloon Trip, in that it is a side scrolling adventure with Alice floating with the help of two balloons. There were some added features such as allowing Alice to remove her balloons and walk on the ground, and if her balloons were to be popped but she managed to land safely she could simply retrieve two more balloons from her pocket and proceed.

She ain't got no balloons!

Unlike the original Balloon Trip mode, Balloon Kid was broken up into finite stages with the object to get to the end of them. There were also four bosses in the game that required Alice to get her stomp on by either simply jumping on top of them or floating above them to detach from her balloons and fall on them.

There was also a two player mode where one player would battle against another to gather as many balloons as they could before reaching the end of the stage. In addition to this there is also a classic Balloon Trip mode that mirrors the original.

Between the release of Balloon Kid and Tingle’s Balloon Fight the series was absent but not forgotten. The Balloon Fighters have seen cameos in the WarioWare, Inc. series and have been seen as trophies in the Smash Bros. games. Speaking of Smash Bros., the Balloon Fighter was actually being considered as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but lost out to previous MIA subjects, the Ice Climbers.

Here's hoping Balloon Fighter makes it into the next Smash Bros.

In 2007, Club Nintendo released the exclusive Tingle’s Balloon Fight – a game that featured one of the most polarizing characters in Nintendo history, Tingle the elf. The game contained both traditional Balloon Fight and Trip modes with the titular star in the role of Balloon Fighter. The game never saw a wider release and never made it out of Japan.

Even though it has Tingle in it, it still looks fun...

The original Balloon Fight, like Ice Climber, has seen several ports over the years to different handheld and virtual consoles – as a side note this is one of the titles that Nintendo is releasing to the 3DS as part of its ‘ambassador program’ – but has not seen a current generation update at this time. And like Ice Climber I can see no better home for it than the 3DS.

The vertical two screen display of the 3DS would make for a great Balloon Fight playing field. But the real enhancements would have to come in the form of multiplayer. By the magic of the 3DS download and play, we could have 4 players battling it out on a single cart. Add to that WiFi support and I could be battling any of you via the wonderful world of the internet.

The addition of different landscapes, greater variety of enemies and different control schemes could make this game a real standout.

Graphically the game doesn’t need a lot and it’s actually amazing that Nintendo hasn’t thought about bringing an update to the handheld or the Wii itself. Since the game isn’t all that large, there is no reason this couldn’t be released as a virtual title on the eShop app or as Wiiware.

And there you have it! It is the opinion of this writer that it has been far too long since we’ve seen a new Balloon Fight game hit the streets. Let your thoughts be known by sounding off in the comments section below!

Welcome to Part 2 of what was originally going to be a two part series on reissues, remakes and reboots. As I started writing, I realized that this second part would be entirely too long if I tried to cram both remakes and reboots into it. So, I decided to split it in half and this series will conclude tomorrow with reboots. If you didn’t read the first blog on reissues, do yourself a favor and check it out before you start.

Just as in part one, I’d like to start by defining what a remake is.

A remake takes an individual title and changes fundamental traits of that game, while leaving the general story intact. The traits may include, but are not limited to graphics, characters, dialogue, music, controls, game mechanics and story line.

Don't worry, the end boss still looks like Hitler

Remakes are not new to the video game industry and neither are they unique to it either. The movie industry in particular has been telling and retelling the same stories for decades now. There are two main reasons why a company would want to remake a game:

1) Money

2) To promote a new addition to a series

As a subset to the first item, there are two reasons why these games make money.

1) Nostalgia – Remakes in particular are created mainly to get people who played and loved the original to play a retooled and reimagined version. Sometimes this backfires, but nostalgia is a portal to many a man’s wallet and the industry knows this.

2) Great Exposure – Younger gamers have often heard of hallmark or key games and franchises, but haven’t actually played them due to limited availability of just the fact that it’s old and doesn’t have the bells and whistles of current generation titles. Remaking titles allows a newer generation to feed their curiosity with greater ease.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of remakes because they are essentially money grabs – developers and publishers know that they will sell – and a reissue usually will suit a game just fine.

That being said, I do believe that remakes have a place in video game culture and if done correctly can even serve as a saving grace of a series. The following are some rules and considerations pertaining to the creation of remakes.

Remake vs. Reissue

Remakes and reissues are generally created for the same reasons, and as such the rules for choosing a title to remake are just like the ones for choosing a title to reissue. The title should have some kind of historical importance, be wildly popular, influential, etc…. With this being the case you might ask, why bother with a remake? Why not just reissue the game with some slight enhancements and be done with it?

Well, there are some reasons why remaking the game would be preferable to reissuing it.

1) The original control scheme is frustrating and renders it unplayable.

2) The original graphical presentation hasn’t aged well.

3) The game’s theme or tone needs to be updated to translate into a newer generation.

4) Original game mechanics were in place because of technological shortcomings or poor game design.

There are more, but I’m sure you get the idea – the remake treatment is reserved for important games of yesteryear that you wouldn’t want to play today because of some kind of negative design or play mechanic.

A great example of this would be the original Resident Evil. Now, while some of you may be screaming “Blasphemy!” at your computer monitors, most would agree that while Resident Evil is a historically important game, and would be considered good by the standards of its day, it doesn’t hold up very well.

I hate Shark Week at the Resident Evil mansion...

The script was awful, the live action cut scenes were pure cheese, the ribbon save system was ridiculous and the controls…oh the controls, were some of the worst in video game history. They were a product of the technology of the time as there was no duel shock back then, and this resulted in jerky aiming and robotic movements.

While the game has indeed received a simple reissue, it was screaming for a remake which would fix these issues and in 2006 one was granted in the form of an exclusive version on the GameCube. This version completely overhauled the graphics, redid all of the cut scenes in CGI, rewrote all of the dialogue and fixed the controls…a bit….

These fixes greatly improved the experience while staying true to the soul of the original. But remakes should hardly be satisfied with fixes, they should seek to add additions that will make playing the game a totally new experience for those already familiar with the original. In this respect Resident Evil certainly delivered in the form of the “red cap” zombies and new and retooled puzzles.

In my mind Resident Evil is the pinnacle of what a proper remake should be.

Releasing the Remake

Releasing a remake is much like releasing a reissue. Enough time should have passed so that the game is no longer at the forefront of the gaming community’s consciousness, but is still held in high regard. Generally, I would say that more time should pass since the original release for remaking than for reissuing since a game should generally only have to be ‘fixed’ after it’s been out for quite some time.

Ideally a remake would be timed with the release of newer titles in a franchise. Three titles come to mind that pulled this off very well:

1) The aforementioned Resident Evil

2) Metroid: Zero Mission

3) Bionic Commando Reamed

Each of these titles was released in proximity of a brand new release in the series (or reboot as is the case with Bionic Commando). By doing this, they’ve added to the name recognition of the franchise and serve as a way to expose newer gamers to some gems from the past. It’s like melting cheese on broccoli so your kids will eat it.

Metroid without cheese/Metroid with cheese

There is one thing I would like to mention before I leave you for today. It is essential that the remake not mess with the core story or soul of the game. If the story is changed on a fundamental level (not talking about small details), then the game is not a remake, but a reboot and I’ll go over those tomorrow.

What do you all think of remakes? What is their place in the world? Any particularly good remakes that I didn’t mention? Add to the discussion by sounding off in the comments section below!

And remember to join my tomorrow for the conclusion of this blog series – Reboot!

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Comments (3)

Not sure why I didnt reply to your comment weeks ago

It's called a "squishable cthulhu" I actually saw it as an advertisement on my facebook page, looked it up and posted the link to all my friends saying "omg buy me this" well eventually a boyfriend at the time did. :D Did you ever post Dagon pictures?

OH!

Duh. I don't know how I just scrolled past your picture section! OMG your tattoo is freakin' amazing! seriously. I love it! The cthulhu I want would just be a little nugget baby one since I don't have the room to do something incredible like yours. Excuse me while my mind was just blown. :D I don't get around to seeing decent tattoos these days.

baby cthulhu

pictures were posted. Please look at them soon so I can take down the one that I'm in. It's awful I'll have to retake a better one at a different time. But yeah FINALLY uploaded them into "my images" or whatever it's called :D